


What Once Was Mine

by AzureLightningEmeraldCloud



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Cassandra (Disney: Tangled), Post-Episode: s03e19 Plus Est En Vous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26797531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzureLightningEmeraldCloud/pseuds/AzureLightningEmeraldCloud
Summary: Cassandra and Rapunzel have a bit longer of a heart to heart before fighting Zhan Tiri. After the dust settles, why is Cassandra screaming?
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 11
Kudos: 88





	1. Erasing the Line

What Once Was Mine

**_Now_ **

“Cass, get up. _Please get up._ Don’t. Don’t do this to me. Please, Cassandra, I _can’t…_ I can’t lose you _, not now I’ve got you back._ ” Cassandra’s feverish and trembling form laid cradled in her princess’ lap. Rapunzel’s tears were streaming down her face as her dearest friend fought for every breath.

**_Before_ **

Cassandra had collapsed with a scream that chilled Rapunzel to the bone. When Zhan Tiri had ripped the Moonstone out of Cass’ chest, and predictably, the once gleaming aqua blue pebble was covered with Cassandra’s blood. Cassandra was thrown into the back wall with a flash of blue as Zhan Tiri stood victorious in her new hideous form. Rapunzel didn’t much pay attention to whatever threats the demon made as she hastened to Cassandra’s side. Just in time too, because gleaming golden rock rose up to imprison the two young women before Zhan Tiri quit the room to go after everyone else.

Rapunzel desperately tried to get her closest friend back to her feet to no avail, “Cass! Get up, please. It’s not. It’s not–,”

“Too late?” Cassandra breathed out as she opened her eyes, once again mirrors of Gothel’s grey. “Raps, look around you. We’ve lost. And it’s _all_ my fault. I-I can’t do _anything_ right,” The blood leaking from where Zhan Tiri had torn the stone had mercifully slowed a little, but it still painted Rapunzel’s favorite dress a horrid shade of red. To Rapunzel’s continued horror, Cassandra’s beautiful eyes were swollen with tears.

But Cassandra’s eyes weren’t the only thing that changed once the Moonstone was ripped out of her. Rapunzel’s throat nearly filled with bile as she laid eyes on Cassandra’s right arm. Her gauntlets The arm she herself had _mutilated_ with the _Hurt Incantation_. Where there was once flawless flesh, from her her elbow down was gleaming ebony skeleton. Cassandra’s skin was gone, as were her blood and muscles. Perhaps it was a remnant of the Moonstone’s power, or perhaps during her months away Cassandra had taken steps to alter or attempt to heal her arm. But whatever the intention, Cassandra’s right arm looked horrifyingly inhuman, prosthetic. And Rapunzel’s gut clenched in guilt for what her _Hurt Incantation_ had done to her closest friend.

“I forgave you, for this, a while ago actually, before all this _shit_ with the Moonstone went off the rails. I was angry, but yeah..” Cassandra said softly as she took in Rapunzel’s rare and harrowing look of self-loathing. “The _Incantation_ you were using didn’t do all of this. It was _bad_ , and you know I switched hands for my sword; but this was a bit of magic I found in the Dark Kingdom separate from the Moonstone. It allowed me to use my arm again at full strength, way more powerful than full strength actually, but the price was well…pretty gross,” Cassandra let out a dry chuckle that didn’t quite reach her eyes as she flexed her obsidian-like skeletal fingers. “I finally look like the way I feel. Magic always seems to have a sense of humour huh?”

Rapunzel took Cassandra’s magical prosthetic right hand in her own and pressed it to her cheek, “I’m so sorry. I should’ve trusted you, and all I did was hurt one of the most important people in my life.”

“I told you all those months ago after the whole memory mishap, I was angry, but I wouldn’t always be. And besides, this new hand has actually saved my life a couple times.” Cassandra stopped talking as the incantation that haunted her dreams seemed to permeate the very walls of the castle. “The Hurt Incantation,” she whispered in horror.

Sure enough, the ground around her began to grey, the painted surfaces immediately flaking. Though to both her and Rapunzel’s surprise, the negative effects of the _Hurt Incantation_ seemed to almost pass over them. 

“Cass, you’re bleeding,” Rapunzel said as she pointed to the gaping wound in her best friend’s chest. For having a hole in her chest, one that Rapunzel had to assume was right over the woman’s heart, Cassandra was doing a remarkable job of _not dying_. Well, whatever angels were looking after her former hand maiden, Rapunzel wasn’t going to let her die now.

Rapunzel tore part of her sleeve off and proceeded to staunch the wound as gently as she could. Cassandra’s vulnerable hitch in breath at the pain somehow struck the princess in her core, but she maintained as much pressure as she was able since Cass was braced against the golden rock.

“Stop. Raps, just…leave it,” Cass moaned miserably.

“What? No! I’m not going to let you _bleed_ to death Cass. Besides, we need to get out of here and stop that _monster_ from destroying Corona,” the princess replied matter-of-factly.

“Raps. I left you to _die_ in that cave with the poisonous gas. I almost killed you atop my tower. Hell, I _built_ the tower over the ruins of Gothel, our _mother’s_ tower just to spite you,” Cassandra said as tears began to steadily spill down her cheeks.

“So? I blasted you off your tower. While I _specifically_ told Varian to hold fire, I allowed him to bring the amber gun, project Obsidian into a confrontation with you _knowing_ it was a possibility you’d be trapped like his father. You’re not the only one who has done terrible things Cass,” Rapunzel replied with a stubborn glare that Cass couldn’t help but look on affectionately as ‘Rapunzel’s Game Face’.

Cassandra was going to say something else, but Rapunzel continued, this time in a quieter tone, “ ‘ _No, this has to stop now. This thing were you think you’ve been my friend; you don’t even_ hear _how you condescend, just like you’ve always done._ ’ I’ve thought a lot about that. That whole day really. Everything you said before you cut the bridge you made.

But it took _a while_ for me to come to terms with well…with the role I played it what made you think the Moonstone was your only chance to claim some sort of power and agency over your destiny.”

Cassandra wanted to interrupt the younger woman, but there was a part of her that knew she _needed_ to let Rapunzel keep talking. So, Rapunzel continued, “I remember when I locked you and Eugene up because your bickering was driving me crazy. At the time, I thought you two were both equal contributors to the issue, but looking back, I remember that it really _was_ Eugene’s fault for _stealing_ a prized possession your dad gave you. And then there was the Challenge Tournament where you had trained for _years_ for that moment, and on a whim I rendered that dream of yours to ash.”

“Winning that tourney wasn’t _everything_ to me,” Cassandra said weakly.

“No. But you were in it to win _respect_ from _everyone_. And I took that chance from you with a dumb little smile and a sheepish shrug.” Rapunzel had tears in her eyes now too.

“Like any of that justifies what I’ve done? Raps, again, look around at all the black stone _riddling your kingdom_ ,” Cassandra insisted.

“Yeah, that’s not great I’ll admit,” Rapunzel admitted with a small chuckle. “But my point is that I wasn’t the friend you deserved.”

“You’re the best friend I could’ve asked for Raps,” Cassandra replied.

Rapunzel shrugged, “A real best friend wouldn’t have made you feel inferior. Like there was a line between us ‘I never let you really ignore’. I _hate_ that I made you feel like my servant when all I wanted was to make you my friend.

I know now why you’ve always had _issues_ with Eugene. Because you worked your whole life to be acknowledged, and when I came back, there was suddenly this thief who sucked up _all_ the admiration of basically everyone you cared about or looked up to, at your expense. There were dozens of little incidents like that, where you were seen as less than for reasons that should never have applied.”

“While that is true, my response to those dozens of slights against me was still unforgivable,” Cass said with a tone of finality. Cassandra looked at her suddenly _very_ introspective friend. She wondered if she should tell Rapunzel the _real_ reason, or rather, the deeper reason she always detested Fitzherbert on a categorical level despite the man’s genuine friendship. “Raps, I think there’s a dimension of my ah, fall from grace that you’re missing. A big dimension.” Cassandra wondered if she should just do it. Say what was on her lips for almost two years now, _I’m in love with you Raps, I always have been._

“I thought I covered everything?” Rapunzel asked with a hilarious twitch of her nose that triggered Cass to let out a genuine laugh, even if it was quiet and a little blood dribbled out over Cassandra's red lips. That kind of laugh that hadn’t happened in well over a year now. “I missed that laugh, _your_ laugh. Do you remember it took you a literal month to laugh in my presence once you’d become my lady in waiting? I was _inordinately_ happy when you finally did.”

“Why? I was just some older surly girl with the weird short hair to you at that point,” Cass replied with a confused look.

“Because I finally got to see the real you. And the real you lights up the room with the most precious smile Cass. You really do,” Rapunzel said with what Cass saw as the world’s most precious smile. “Oh Cass, you don’t need to cry,” Rapunzel said softly as Cass’ tears slid down her cheeks at Raps’ declaration.

“Rapunzel, I’m so sorry,” Cass managed to sob before lurching forward and awkwardly throwing her arms around the princess. Cassandra was mumbling something into Rapunzel’s collarbone, tears wetting the newly brunette’s mane. 

“Cass,” Rapunzel chuckled as she ran her slender fingers through Cassandra’s black locks. “I’ve missed you so much.” Cass nodded almost frantically into Raps’ shoulder, sniffling loudly in a moment of inelegance. Rapunzel laughed at this, clutching her once lost friend to her as tightly as she could.

The castle shook as they could hear Zhan Tiri laugh. “Let’s stop this bitch from razing Corona,” Cassandra growled once she regained most of her composure. She pulled from her chest a bloody shard of the Moonstone Opal.

…

… 

…

Zhan Tiri’s scream as she was rendered to _nothing_ was deafening.

Cassandra stood tall as she spat blood out of her mouth and smiled wide. The glow of the celestial stone was nearly blinding as it once more became one. The Moonstone Opal and the Sundrop had finally been reunited after millennia.

Cass looked around for her beloved princess as the dust settled. “Raps! We did it! We fucking stopped her! Raps?”

Cassandra caught sight of a shard of castle stone sticking straight up like a very thin and jagged pillar just off to her side. As her eyes tracked to where the pillar met the ground; or where it _should_ have met the ground. Cassandra’s guttural scream woke the other survivors from their faded states.

Instead, on its journey to the ground, the pillar had nearly bisected the princess. She laid there with lifeless glassy eyes and haunting victorious smile somehow locked on Cassandra.


	2. Cassandra's Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra does the thing.

PART II:

Rapunzel was dead.

Cassandra dug her skeletal hand into the pillar and screamed with effort as she pulled it _out of_ her dead friend. There was a sickening _squelch_ as it was freed from Rapunzel, causing Cassandra’s boots to be soaked with gore and the royal’s lifeblood.

Cass didn’t care, she dropped to her knees and cradled the face of the woman she loved. Rapunzel was dead.

“Raps. Don’t leave me,” Cassandra managed to voice in the midst of her sobbing.

“RAPUNZEL!” Cassandra blinks out of her stupor to see the Queen, Rapunzel’s mother,

limping toward them at a staggering pace. Cassandra wordlessly turned her head to survey the damage around her. Eugene was closest but was unconscious. His chest rose and fell steadily, much to Cassandra’s _relief_. How that _burned_ , that somehow he _always_ managed to pull through, even while Rapunzel lay dead not ten meters away.

“No! My baby, not again,” Queen Arianna collapses at her daughter’s side. She’s sobbing uncontrollably mumbling prayers and oaths in equal measure as she somehow tried to coax her destroyed daughter back to life. And in this small moment, all Cass could think about was 1) she’d never seen an adult cry like this before, and 2) Arianna’s eyes were perfect mirrors of Rapunzel’s.

Cassandra shakily stood up to lay her eyes on the prize, floating in midair tauntingly. The Celestial Opal, both Moonstone and Sundrop combined to form the most powerful pebble in Creation. She looked down at the queen who was now caked in Rapunzel’s lifeblood, much like Cassandra herself. “No,” Cass whispered. “No,” she repeated with a little more strength.

Queen Arianna noticed Cassandra standing there. “Cassandra, if you did this,”

“I’d rather marry Fitzherbert. No. This was Zhan Tiri’s work,” Cass replied promptly.

“It should’ve been you,” Arianna stated blankly as she turned her attention back to the daughter she had lost twice.

Cassandra nodded dumbly. Of course, the Queen was right. What gave Cass the right to live when the light in her darkest hour had been extinguished in the moment of victory? Cassandra’s eyes wandered to Eugene, who was stirring weakly. Still out of it, but not for too much longer. Cassandra knelt and gingerly plucked a few strands of Rapunzel’s brilliant but _brunette_ mane. She looked back at Eugene, and then at Rapunzel, and back to the Celestial Opal.

“Arianna,” Cassandra said clearly, if a little quieter than usual. The Queen looked up, shocked if anything at Cassandra’s complete disregard for the proper etiquette.

“What?” Arianna asked as tears still spilled from her eyes and her breathing was mostly sobbing.

“When she wakes up, tell her I love her, and that I’m sorry for being a coward and not telling her myself a year ago before this hell started,” Cass said softly as she drew deep breaths, preparing herself for the final task she knew she had to complete.

“What do you mean? You hurt her more than anybody else ever has, except for your mother,” Arianna replied automatically. Then she clutched her daughter’s body do her and shook her head before screaming at the girl she now blamed for this travesty, reverting back to her mother tongue, “ _ELLE EST MORTE CASSANDRA!_ ”

Cassandra sighed as she removed her boots. She wanted to feel the earth under her one last time. “I’m going to bring her back, so just…just do it. Not for me, but for her. Because she’s so _pure_ and kind and she’ll blame herself _somehow_ for what I’m about to do,”

Arianna’s eyes widened as she connected what Cassandra was saying to the gleaming opal a few paces away. “Cassandra, if you do this you’ll die,” she stated. Not that she was trying to persuade the younger girl to _not_ try, but there was some part of her that remembered the feisty little girl the Captain had raised and felt she owed Cass this small courtesy. “Let me do it.”

“No. Thank you, but no.” Cassandra looked at Arianna before hesitating and knelt to kiss her Princess Rapunzel on the lips, one time. Rapunzel’s face was speckled with Cassandra’s tears as she pulled away from the _flicker_ of what could’ve been.

Cassandra “Arianna, _Sag Rapunzel einfach, dass sie mein Herz ist und es immer war,”_ Cassandra beseeched the Queen with sad grey eyes. She switched languages to the one her father stubbornly insisted she learn as a child. It wasn’t until last year she realised of course that German was Gothel’s language, and decided to re-learn what she had forgotten, much to Zhan Tiri’s annoyance. Cassandra thought it was fitting for her last words outside of the incantation she was about to sing.

Cassandra limped to the Celestial Opal and extended her right hand. Her black skeletal fingers bypassed the forcefield around the Opal, but when she closed her gleaming ebony fist around it, she screamed in agony as _all_ the power in the world seemingly coursed through her body. The _Hurt Incantation_ was _nothing_ compared to this pain.

Cassandra’s body lifted off the ground as her hair became a mirror of the Opal, bright blue with gleaming golden highlights.

“ _Flower, gleam and glow  
Let your power shine_

Cassandra could feel it working as she floated towards where Rapunzel’s body lay. Thankfully, Queen Arianna had the sense to quickly back away. The multi-colour light flaring off of Cass now enveloped Rapunzel like a godly cocoon. All the while, Cass kept singing even as tears coursed down her cheeks as she could feel the stone overloading her body. As more power poured into Cass’ body, her hair started to gain black streaks of decay as well. And to her unconscious chagrin, her hair began to grow longer as well.

_  
Make the clock reverse  
Bring back what once was mine_

_Heal what has been hurt  
Change the Fates' design_

Rapunzel’s body had now become one piece again and colour returned to her face. Cassandra, trembling, knelt and encircled the resurrecting princess with her arms as she crooned the final lines into Rapunzel’s collarbone. Cass’ strength was long past gone. She was running on willpower. Her eyes were closed, so she didn’t realise Rapunzel’s hair was now glowing gold with streaks of blue and black like an inverse of Cassandra’s new hairdo.

Cass wasn’t aware of it, but the black rocks all over Corona dispersed into the air, funneling back into the stone in Cassandra’s hand. She was pulling _all_ of the stone’s power to heal not just her love, but her kingdom as well.

All around Cassandra, the citizens of Corona woke up and those nearest like the King, Varian, Eugene, Lance, Angry, and Catalina along with the rest the gang stood in awe of the scene in front of them.

 __  
Save what has been lost  
 **Bring back what once was mine**

**_What once was mine_ ** _”_

Cassandra almost growled the last couple lines, feeling the life finally return to her unrequited beloved. Cassandra could _feel_ Rapunzel draw breath again. Cass’ glowing tears were sinking into Rapunzel’s chest like rain into a pond.

Nobody could be allowed to use the stone again, Cass knew this, but while she would’ve liked to blast the thing into space, she simply didn’t have the power to do that anymore. So she raised her hand, still clutching the Opal, and put the last vestiges of her concentration into making it _go away_.

The Opal burst in a blinding light that claimed the last of Cassandra’s awareness as she felt the burn renew and in her bones she felt it was over for her. She passed out.

What Cassandra missed was that the power rendered itself completely into Cassandra, and then partly passed into the girl already imbued with the healing tears and tether to the Sundrop.

When everyone got to their feet and gathered ‘round, they were shocked to find Rapunzel with multi-colour hair, trying to wake Cassandra, who’s hair was longer than anybody could remember and similar to the blue they had grown to despise, but was now coloured with black and gold streaks like Rapunzel’s was with _gold_ and black.

“Cass, get up. _Please get up._ Don’t. Don’t do this to me. Please, Cassandra, I _can’t…_ I can’t lose you _, not now I’ve got you back._ ” Cassandra’s feverish and trembling form laid cradled in her princess’ lap. Rapunzel’s tears were streaming down her face as her dearest friend fought for every breath. She looked up to gaze at the destruction around them. “Mom, Eugene, help me get her to a bed. Varian! I need you too, find out what’s wrong with her.”

“Rapunzel, She’s a traitor,” the King tried to say delicately, but before Rapunzel could tell him off, her mother beat her to it.

“She likely just gave her life for our daughter, our kingdom. Getting her a bed is the least we can do,” Arianna declared. To the surprise of everyone, Rapunzel then stood and lifted Cassandra unaided into a bridal carry and marched right back into the castle. They followed on the princess’ heels like a group of ducklings.


	3. Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raps and her mom talk.

Part III: Sleeping Beauty

“Rapunzel, it’s been days. And she’s not getting better sweetie,” Arianna said softly. She looked down at where her daughter might as well have been sitting at Cassandra’s side the whole five days since Zhan Tiri’s demise. Not for lack of trying, King Frederick and Eugene both were eventually able to go on a short ride with Fidella, who could clearly sense something was wrong with her mistress.

“She’ll wake up, mom. I’m not worried about that,” Rapunzel said softly as she threaded her fingers through her multi-colour and shoulder-length hair. “Before we beat Zhan Tiri and I uh, died; we talked a bit. She’s not the same old Cass, but I think we’ll be able to move forward from this last year. It sucked.”

Queen Arianna chuckled as she saw a little bit of the less burdened daughter she recognized peek through the haze of anxiety she’d been since Cass’ sacrifice. “Well, that’s good. But if you’re so confident she’ll wake up, then what’s been bringing you down so much?”

Rapunzel ran a hand through her hair. A habit the Queen noticed her daughter had developed ever since her hair had changed, again. Rapunzel’s hair was something of an unofficial Corona national treasure, and now it had been magically changed for a second time. Nobody was exactly sure what Cassandra had done when she resurrected Rapunzel. After long conversations with Eugene (and Pascal), they realised that this time was different. Her hair was gold, but it was streaked with the moonstone blue that Cassandra’s had been and _Hurt Incantation_ black, and nobody knew exactly what to make of it. It wasn’t unbreakable anymore, but it shimmered with power all the same.

Cassandra’s hair was still blue but was now streaked with Rapunzel’s gold and _Hurt Incantation_ black. Arianna personally thought that Cass looked more ladylike with longer hair, but she knew if, _when_ , Cassandra woke up, she’d probably cut it short again.

Rapunzel was almost automatically stroking the back of Cassandra’s hand with her thumb as she held the sleeping woman’s pale hand in her own tanned one. “Eugene proposed to me again,” she said quietly.

“What?” Arianna asked, genuinely surprised at the non sequitur. She recovered admirably though, “And? What did you say to him this time sweetie?”

Rapunzel replied, “I shot him down. I told him that while a wedding would probably be a decent idea to raise Corona’s morale after this Zhan Tiri disaster, I just couldn’t say yes. I…” Rapunzel visibly struggled with her next sentence, “I told him that I’m _different now._ And it’s not just my hair,” the princess chuckled slightly as she almost mockingly tossed her rapidly growing hair over her right shoulder.

Arianna gently ran her own hand through Rapunzel’s multicolor hair as her daughter parsed through her feelings, “Different how?”

“Mom, I’ve been changed by what happened. And if I could point my finger at _dying_ and being brought back to life, I would; but the truth is I’ve _been_ changing the whole of last year. I clung to Eugene, and you, and even dad more than I ever have,” Rapunzel said softly.

“That’s only natural, you’d just lost your best friend to the corruption of power,” Arianna responded.

“I didn’t _lose_ Cassandra to the moonstone mom. I pushed her away in more ways that I’m comfortable admitting. Taking the moonstone was a last gasp grab at a kind of agency she knew she’d never have otherwise. She was tired of _waiting_ in my shadow,” Rapunzel said heavily. She recalled how she had said exactly the wrong word that shattered her chance to stop this madness before it really kicked off.

“I gave her an ultimatum, implied I wouldn’t forgive her if she ran off with the stone, I actually _said_ that what we had would be lost, and to _just wait_. Like waiting was ever going to be her destiny.” Rapunzel didn’t realize it, but her tone became almost cynically self-deprecating and there were tears gathering in her eyes. “I leveraged my friendship with her to try and get her to _give me_ the stone like I had some kind of divine right to it. And oh boy,” Rapunzel chuckled darkly, which really rang some alarm bells for her mother. “That was easily the worst day of my life. Well, that, and the aftermath of the battle with that demonic b-bi-bad person Zhan Tiri,” Rapunzel finished lamely. Arianna let a grin show on her face; however, changed her daughter may be, she couldn’t cuss to save her life.

“And yeah, Cass then sort of went on a power binge with the moonstone, I’ll admit that was kinda bad. Like, really bad. But there were times when she was ready to back down, where I _know_ I got through to her, and things would inexplicably go horribly wrong. Like, that business with the mirror being in my bag that came from _nowhere_ , and Varian shooting her with Amber,” Rapunzel continued as she took a moment to look back at her mom. “I was _so close_. She was standing down, and I could _feel_ her turning from her dark path.”

Queen Arianna remembered what Cass had said to her in German right before she might have very well traded her life for Rapunzel’s. Luckily, Arianna spoke German well enough, as her father was Austrian, but she hadn’t told Rapunzel what Cass’ message yet. Cassandra’s unequivocal declaration of love for the Princess of Corona.

Cassandra had thought she’d die saving Rapunzel, and though she still might; Arianna thought that the former handmaiden deserved to tell the princess her feelings on her own terms assuming she opened her eyes again. If she died, she would let her daughter know Cass’ last words were for her alone.

While the queen hadn’t been present for the cock-up with Varian and Project Obsidian, Arianna remembered how devastated her daughter had been. She heard Eugene talking to Lance about putting Varian in the brig again. Arianna wasn’t an idiot; she knew her presumptive son-in-law was beside himself that Cassandra was so close to putting down arms and he’d lost his closest frenemy again. He wasn’t as upset as Rapunzel had been, but Arianna was surprised at how much the man was invested in Rapunzel’s dream of Cassandra returning to them once again. From her perspective, Eugene and Cassandra did little more than bicker. But Rapunzel had believed Varian when he said it was an accidental malfunction. It _was_ a prototype firing mechanism unlike a crossbow bolt with a simple trigger. Ariana almost shrugged as her thoughts went toward the distraught separatist.

“Did Gothel teach you German?” Ariana couldn’t help herself from asking the non-sequitur.

Rapunzel looked up at her once more, confused, before replying, “ _Ja_. It was my first language actually. She trained the accent out of me before I was ten though. Why?”

“Cassandra said something in German before she spoke the _Healing Incantation._ Perhaps when she wakes she’ll tell you herself,” Ariana smiled down and ran her thumb across her daughter’s cheek, vanquishing the tear that had appeared there during her bout of self-recrimination.

“I didn’t know she spoke it,” Rapunzel muttered.

“Apparently after Gothel abandoned her,” Ariana noticed Rapunzel’s flinch, but continued past her daughter’s discomfort, “Our former Guard Captain hired somebody to teach her. I think he felt that she should maintain _some_ kind of connection to her heritage since that _woman_ wouldn’t be teaching the child. Maybe when she wakes, you two can have some conversations about it.”

Rapunzel smiled smally but sincerely before a sharp intake of breath drew both of their attention to the waking beauty in front of them.


End file.
